Jennifer Saul

MA, PhD Princeton; BA Rochester

Her primary interests are in Philosophy of Language and in Feminism. She has recently published a book entitled Lying, Misleading and What is Said: An Exploration in Philosophy of Language and in Ethics (Oxford University Press 2012). This argues that considering the distinction between lying and misleading-- which seems to many an ethically significant one-- can help to shed new light on methodological disputes in philosophy of language over notions like what is said, semantic content, assertion, impliciture, and expliciture. She also argues that careful attention to the way that communication works can shed new light on the ethical issues. (And she considers some fascinating real-world cases, feeding her lifelong obsession with political scandals but also branching out into such excellent topics as the Jesuit doctrine of Mental Reservation.) Jenny has just finished a four-year term as Head of Department. As a result, she will spend 2015-16 writing on a collection of topics at the intersection of politics and language: dogwhistles, generics, trigger warnings, deception, hate speech, and lots of others. She is particularly interested in exploringissues related to race and gender.

Jenny was Director of the (2011-2013) Leverhulme-funded Implicit Bias and Philosophy Project (link at the right).

With Helen Beebee, she published a report for the British Philosophical Association and SWIP UK entitled "Women in Philosophy in the UK: A Report". This report presents the first ever study of the gender imbalance in UK philosophy and provides a list of recommendations to combat it. You can download it at the right.

Jenny is Director of the Society for Women in Philosophy UK and Co-Chair of the British Philosophical Association's Women in Philosophy Committee. She is on the Editorial Board for Symposia in Gender, Race, and Philosophy, and on the Analysis Committee.

Jenny has supervised PhD students working on names, implicature, gender, sexual objectification, vagueness, indexicals, reference, justice, cosmopolitanism and feminism, epistemic/communicative injustice and autonomy. She loves attending the Feminism and Philosophy of Language reading groups, although she doesn't always manage it.

Jenny is honoured to have received the 2011 Distinguished Woman Philosopher Award in Washington, DC. But her proudest accomplishment is nonetheless having been a consultant on a zombie movie script.